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HBO

Bill Maher on Friday took aim at Glenn Beck as a “con man” preaching a “patented brand of apocalyptic race-baiting” to a subscription-based audience — from Maher’s own perch on subscription-based network HBO.

It started when Maher said liberals need to stop “gloating” about Sarah Palin’s recent departure from Fox News — even though it was a “wonderful, hilarious coincidence” that it just came after Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal implored fellow Republicans to “stop being the stupid party.”

“It makes me think of this guy,” Maher said, flashing a photo of Beck. “Did he curl up into a ball and weep like a baby? Of course he did. This is Glenn Beck we’re talking about.”

Maher continued that Beck then “saw an open window, the Internet. Who needs Fox News when he can take his patented brand of apocalyptic race-baiting directly to the fans, who now pay $9.95 to hear Glenn. Cheaper than a case of their favorite wine.”

Maher evidently missed that access to TheBlaze.com is free of charge, as is Beck’s radio show, which pulls in an average of 10 million listeners a week. Subscription-based TheBlaze TV is also available in millions of homes on DISH Network.

“That $9.95 really adds up,” Maher continued. “Last year, Glenn Beck made $80 million, placing him 11th on the Forbes list of the highest-paid celebrities, Elton John, who sang at the wedding of someone else on the list, Rush Limbaugh.”

Beck did indeed make $80 million — a combination of radio, book, and touring profits, not solely BlazeTV subscriptions. Maher then opined about how Beck and Limbaugh are a big part of what’s wrong with the Republican Party.

“Con men like Rush and Beck are one reason the Republicans are in such dire straits today,” he said. “They don’t care about winning elections, they care about separating rubes from their money. They’ve discovered there’s a fortune to be made by keeping a small portion of America under the illusion that they are always under attack from Mexicans or ACORN or Planned Parenthood or gays or takers, global warming hoaxers, it doesn’t matter.”

Knocking TheBlaze TV’s “only” 300,000 subscribers — but not mentioning TheBlaze.com’s 10 million unique visitors last month or its 90 million page views according to Google Analytics — Maher continued that Beck and Limbaugh “don’t want a majority.”

“They don’t want a majority, they want a mailing list — a list of gullible Honey Boo Boos out there who think there’s a war on Christmas or that these socialist policies of our Kenyan president have been so disastrous that the end of the world is coming,” Maher said.